Secret Service Prostitution Scandal Over Shadows Obama Trip to Columbia

President Barack Obama addresses United States Secret Service Uniformed Division (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

President Barack Obama said he would be “angry” if accusations that his security staff hired prostitutes at a key political summit in Colombia proved true.

Speaking for the first time about the scandal since the news broke, Obama said agents representing the United States and are supposed to conduct themselves with the highest levels of dignity.

“Obviously, what’s been reported doesn’t match up to those standards,” Obama said in a news conference wrapping his appearance at a Latin America summit in Cartagena.

The prostitution scandal has overshadowed Obama’s trips to the Summit of the Americas meeting. It came to light after US secret service agents allegedly took prostitutes back to their hotel in Cartagena before Obama arrived for the meeting this weekend. Eleven agents have been sent home and put on administrative leave while the scandal is investigated.

On Saturday the US Defence Department said a further five military personnel, staying at the same hotel, had been confined to their rooms after violating a curfew and “may have been involved in inappropriate conduct,” the United States Southern Command said in a written statement. “The conduct is alleged to have occurred in the same hotel where the recalled United States Secret Service agents were staying.”